An Unconventional Conversation
by CharmedArtist
Summary: When Hermione picked up the book in the library, she didn't expect a simple quote to change her life. Hermione/Snape.
1. Hermione

Hermione sighed as she placed a pile of books on her regular table in the library. The common room was unusually noisy that day – or did it only seem that way to her? – and she'd fled to the peace and quiet of the library.

Sinking into what she'd come to think of as her chair, the bushy-haired girl realized there was a book already lying on the table and picked it up curiously. Her eyebrows rose at the title, "P.S.: I Love You", and she opened it to one of the marked pages.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do," she read quietly to herself. "So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

"Utter idiocy," a voice muttered poisonously from behind her, and she stiffened in her seat. "Twenty years on, the things you did will haunt you, choices you had no choice but to make following you everywhere you go. Stay in your safe harbor for as long as you can, Miss Granger, for after that, nothing will be the same again."

The rustle of fabric and the sound of sharp footsteps, and Hermione didn't have to turn around to know who had spoken to her.

* * *

That was the beginning of a strange exchange of quotes. Hermione would prepare a quote to leave at the end of each Potions essay, and when she got the essay back a retort would be scrawled sharply in red underneath it. She wasn't sure why, but she took a perverse sort of pleasure from quoting the most foolishly optimistic and up-beat things and receiving darkly scorning quotes back. It was fascinating to see what her professor would return fire with, and she found herself memorizing every single quote.

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."  
\- Albert Einstein

"No doubt exists that all women are crazy; it's only a question of degree."  
\- W. C. Fields

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do."  
\- Benjamin Franklin

His very first quote had almost deterred her – "It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it." - Maurice Switzer – but for some reason (foolish Gryffindor brashness, she was sure her professor would call it) she continued adding quotes to the end of her essays, and he played along.

Before she knew it, she was asking questions with her quotes – and receiving answers.

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."  
\- André Gide

Sometimes, his quotes gave her the feeling they were, in some ways, very similar.

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."  
\- Mark Twain

Much later, her teacher's quotes sometimes reflected things she doubted he'd ever say aloud, and those were the times she agonized most over which quote to respond with.

"Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler."  
\- Friedrich Nietzsche

This continued on for months, her quotes eventually being added to the end of DADA essays instead of Potions ones; sometimes it took her longer to find a suitable quote than to write the essay that preceded it. Harry and Ron never did figure out the reason why she'd sometimes make last-minute dashes to the library moaning that the conclusion to her essay wasn't perfect.

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."  
\- Robert Frost

Then the man killed Dumbledore, and Hermione found herself thrown headfirst into the war, running from Snatchers and driving herself half-crazy trying to figure out where Voldemort's Horcruxes could be. She tried to keep her thoughts away from the man with whom she had exchanged quotes.

* * *

"I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it," the double spy coughed blood as he lay dying in the Shrieking Shack, eyes closed as his body shook under the effects of poison and blood loss. Hermione whimpered and fell to her knees, rummaging violently around in her bag.

"You go ahead," she said tightly to the two young men with her, Harry looking down at her with a lost expression with a vial of Snape's memories clutched in his fist. "Go!" Hermione repeated, a tone of steel in her voice. "I'll follow once he's stabilized."

"It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die," the once-smooth voice whispered hoarsely, and Hermione growled.

"You're not going to die, professor," she bit out, finally finding and pulling out her stash of potions, much depleted after their time on the run. "I won't let you."

* * *

After the end of the war she went back to complete her last year at Hogwarts, each week finding a suitable quote for the Potions professor who now wore a soft kerchief around his neck, the stark red fabric almost completely hidden under his regular black robes.

On her graduation day she, the Head Girl and Valedictorian, finished her speech by catching the dark-haired man's eye, smiling mischievously, and quoting, "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who'll decide where to go." Something within her thrilled at the answering curve of his lips, a hint of dark amusement briefly lighting his face before it was smoothed away into his regular dour expression.

She went into the Ministry, then, but continued sending him a quote every week. No letter – just a quote on a slip of parchment, one owl each week. His return owl always reached her two days later.

One time they passed each other in Hogsmeade, and the small quirk of the lips he gave her in reply to her cheerful greeting had her nearly floating for the rest of the day. Few people's approval had ever mattered to her as much as his.

When he was brought to the Ministry on trumped-up charges about endangering his students, Hermione caught wind of it through the grapevine and ran the entire way to the courtroom. They probably only let her defend him in court because they hadn't thought she would defend him so thoroughly.

Afterwards, he looked at her for a long moment before bowing.

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." Her voice was a whisper, unheard by anyone but him, and his gaze was deep on her. "G. K. Chesterton."

Their interactions changed slightly, then. The exchanged quotes seemed to take on an undertone, something intangible that Hermione desperately hoped she wasn't just imagining. She had memorized the G. K. Chesterton quote long before, thinking she would use it in the context of the war, but it had slipped out of her in that courtroom, and she found that she didn't regret the more intimate subtext it had acquired in that situation.

It was only when a confrontation between her and a former classmate made the newspaper that Hermione was sure she wasn't reading things into her former professor's quotes. She kept the note he sent her following that article taped to her mirror at home.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye."  
\- Jim Henson

One day the expected note didn't come, and Hermione fretted all day – not that she let anyone notice. She had gotten quite good at hiding worry, during the war. But when she got home, there was a bouquet of flowers and a note in front of the door to her apartment.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."  
\- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

P.S.: I Love You

Hermione turned around to find Severus Snape standing a few steps away, uncertainty hidden in his gaze, and threw herself at him with a beaming smile. Their unconventional conversation had come full circle, and as she felt her former professor's arms come up around her she silently thanked whomever had left that book on her library table all those years ago. She certainly had never expected a simple quote to change her life.


	2. Severus

The partner piece; these quotes go hand-in-hand with the ones from the first installment. Enjoy!

* * *

Severus stifled an annoyed sigh when the soft thump of books being placed on a table disturbed the quiet of the library. Looking up from the book in his hand, he saw Granger sink into a chair at the table nearest to him and scowled. Just what he needed.

He'd already taken the first step to sweep by the fifth-year when she began to speak and he stilled instinctively to catch the words coming from her mouth.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do," the bushy-haired girl said quietly, and he realized with a sudden rush of anger that she wasn't speaking to him, but reading aloud from the book in her hand. "So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

"Utter idiocy," he muttered darkly, nearly spitting the words at the girl and feeling somehow angrier at the way she stiffened. "Twenty years on, the things you did will haunt you, choices you had no choice but to make following you everywhere you go. Stay in your safe harbor for as long as you can, Miss Granger," he sneered, "for after that, nothing will be the same again."

He strode away then, unwilling to spend another moment in that damned library, robes billowing behind him in a visual echo of his anger. Damn the chit for quoting such an insipidly inane text in his presence.

* * *

When Granger's next essay ended in another insipid quote, Severus nearly ripped apart the parchment in a sudden resurgence of the previous day's anger. Mastering the urge, he equally quelled the temptation to give the brat a T for her gall and instead added a quote of his own. If the girl really was as bright as everyone maintained, there was no chance she could misinterpret his meaning.

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."  
\- Mae West

The following week, he checked the back of the parchment before reading the essay – and grit his teeth upon finding a new quote there. It was a long one, practically a poem, and Severus furiously wrote another biting quote underneath hers before turning to his marking.

"The chief beauty about time  
is that you cannot waste it in advance.  
The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you,  
as perfect, as unspoiled,  
as if you had never wasted or misapplied  
a single moment in all your life.  
You can turn over a new leaf every hour  
if you choose."  
\- Arnold Bennett

Idiot Gryffindor that she was, the girl didn't give up. She did manage to surprise a laugh out of him when she countered his quote about all women being crazy with a related, but opposing quote. Somehow, he was only mildly annoyed as he wrote another disparaging quote under that one.

"Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood."  
\- Oscar Wilde

Before he knew it, he was searching for suitable quotes to answer perceived questions in hers.

"We're so quick to cut away pieces of ourselves to suit a particular relationship, a job, a circle of friends, incessantly editing who we are until we fit in."  
\- Charles de Lint

Sometimes, he just quoted whatever struck his fancy, and she seemed to pick up on his fleeting lightheartedness and return it in kind.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."  
\- Thomas A. Edison

After months of quotes exchanged on the back of her Potions essays, he once used a quote that he belatedly realized revealed far too much of his mental state – but somehow the teenager, insufferable and rash though she may be, found a quote that didn't gloss over his revelation, but didn't point out how much he had revealed, either. He found himself taking greater care in his choices, after that.

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."  
\- Edith Sitwell

And then, far too soon, he was standing with his wand pointed at his employer and knowing that things were about to change, irrevocably. Albus fell from the tower, Severus turned and strode away, and in a brief thought he mourned the loss of thoughtful words at the end of too-long essays. He had murdered all the Light in his life with one fell swoop, leaving the Dark as his sole companion.

* * *

"I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it," he quoted, giving no great importance to the shivers wracking his body. He had lost too much blood, had too much poison in his veins to survive, and damn him if he wouldn't use all the quotes about death he had memorized for just this occasion. The bushy-haired girl – young woman, actually – didn't seem to appreciate his efforts, if her whimper was anything to go by.

Severus barely registered her words to the two Gryffindor boys looking on dumbly, too concentrated on remembering the other quotes he had memorized. It seemed important, somehow.

"It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die," he remembered, but the shock of Granger growling at him promptly knocked the rest of the quote out of his head. He would have been annoyed if not for the way the young woman captured his attention with potions. Where had those come from? Blood Replenisher, Antivenom, Dittany. Maybe there was a chance he'd survive after all. Shame he hadn't known that before he'd started using up his quotes about death. Ah well – plenty more where those came from, he thought as Granger tipped the potions down his throat.

* * *

She returned to Hogwarts after the war, just as he did, and they took up their quoted conversation as though they had never left off. It was a speck of forgiveness and companionship in a castle full of students who didn't know how to act around him.

On her graduation day Severus listened impassively to her speech, knowing it was special for being the first Valedictorian speech following the war but wishing she hadn't needed to address that topic at all. But then she caught his eye and smiled, her face alight with a mischievous sense of complicity, and quoted, "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who'll decide where to go."

He had to smile at that – not quite a smirk, though it was tinged with a dark sense of humor, for he wondered how many in the hall realized that the top witch of the year had just quoted a Muggle children's book. Judging by the cheers, the students only appreciated the lighthearted end to a rather somber speech, and Severus smoothed his expression back into an impassive one. It was a novel feeling, having a joke addressed only to him, and he felt strangely warmed by it.

* * *

It was odd when the new school year started at Hogwarts. He hadn't realized he looked for her in every crowd until he found himself searching the Great Hall for her at breakfast that first day, and that realization stunned him. In fact, it would most likely have put him in a very foul mood had an owl not chosen that moment to swoop down to his place, leaving him with a single slip of parchment. The laugh that the words startled out of him shocked the hall, but for once Severus didn't care.

"I think the key indicator for wealth is not good grades, work ethic, or IQ. I believe it's relationships. Ask yourself two questions: How many people do I know, and how much ransom money could I get for each one?"  
\- Jarod Kintz

He didn't read anything into their regular exchanges until she was standing beside him in court, defending him with passionate logic from the absurd charges someone had levelled against him. He had thought it briefly when she had worked over him in the Shrieking Shack, but she was formidable when she set her mind to something. Her hair got, if possible, even frizzier, but her eyes glowed with a fire unlike anyone else's.

Severus had never been very good at showing gratitude, and, lost for suitable words, he simply bowed to the woman. "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him," she whispered, and he hid his shock at the implication in her quote. "G. K. Chesterton," she added – and was gone.

He hadn't realized he could spend any more time contemplating quotes and their hidden meanings.

It was the Daily Prophet that finally made him face that he had feelings for his former student. She was in the newspapers with some frequency – she was a war hero, after all – but one day the article was about a confrontation between her and a former classmate in Diagon Alley, and Severus was surprised at how strongly he reacted to it.

"That's always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people want to be around someone because they're pretty. It's like picking your breakfast cereals based on color instead of taste."  
\- John Green

It took him several weeks to shore up his courage and forgo the customary owl-delivered note, instead leaving his weekly quote with a bouquet of flowers on her doorstep and waiting just out of sight for her to return from her job at the Ministry of Magic. His heart in his throat, he watched as she read the note containing the quote that had started it all – along with what could either be taken as the book title or a declaration of his affection. He knew it was the latter.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."  
\- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

P.S.: I Love You

And then Hermione Granger spun around and threw herself into his arms, her beaming smile a response that warmed his very soul. He didn't think he'd ever call a phrase that came from her mouth "utter idiocy" again.


End file.
